tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12690266.post116721126754914687..comments2024-03-24T20:15:00.996-04:00Comments on Critic After Dark: Island of Lost Souls (Erle C. Kenton, 1931)Noel Verahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05904212081036547668noreply@blogger.comBlogger4125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12690266.post-1168247063903732032007-01-08T04:04:00.000-05:002007-01-08T04:04:00.000-05:00Ach, Bela. If I wrote a more exhaustive post, I sh...Ach, Bela. If I wrote a more exhaustive post, I should have. I blame laziness.Noel Verahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05904212081036547668noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12690266.post-1168223743698833702007-01-07T21:35:00.000-05:002007-01-07T21:35:00.000-05:00Pity you didn't mention Bela.Agree excellent atmos...Pity you didn't mention Bela.<BR/><BR/>Agree excellent atmospheric film and I think this was very much a Whale inspired piece that Laughton wisely borrowed some things from for his masterpiece.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12690266.post-1167287596528656702006-12-28T01:33:00.000-05:002006-12-28T01:33:00.000-05:00Thanks gloria; wonderfully informative comments yo...Thanks gloria; wonderfully informative comments you make. Actually passed on a link to your blog at <A HREF="http://movies.groups.yahoo.com/group/a_film_by/" REL="nofollow">a_film_by</A> and David Ehrenstein thanked me.<BR/><BR/>Yes, I think Laughton borrowing ideas from this film is the likelier scenario.Noel Verahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05904212081036547668noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12690266.post-1167238667496841502006-12-27T11:57:00.000-05:002006-12-27T11:57:00.000-05:00Elsa Lanchester, the main source for biographical ...Elsa Lanchester, the main source for biographical details on Laughton, sadly usually left little recorded about the work of her husband in the occasions where she was away (i.e. we know very little about Laughton's work in Island of Lost Souls -she was then in London- or in Les Miserables -she was doing Bride of Frankestein-)<BR/><BR/>Of Island of Lost Souls she reports little else beyond the uncomfortable trip to Catalina Island in a ship full of animals, and Laughton basing his make-up on his dentist and the film was banned in England (up to the sixties!). From other sources, I know that he and Richard Arlen got along very well, in spite of the onscreen enmity of Moreau and Parker. <BR/><BR/>It is a pity that Lanchester doesn't give a more extended account, for, even though she believes that her husband was very unconfortable working in the film (animal smells, make-up hairsfrom beast-men invading everything). The fact is that he -uncomfortable or not- gives a remarkable performance, he absolutely trascends the cliche of the Mad Scientist and makes of Moreau a chilling and unique creation (the kind of thing Ian Holm didn't dare to do when playing Alan Moore's Doctor Gull in From Hell). <BR/><BR/>Reports on his playing of Brecht's Galileo years later say that he exposed perfectly the pleasure Galileo got from his intellectual work as a scientist... likely, Moreau clearly enjoys what he's doing, and his attitude when watching Parker and Lota is as much scientfic curiosity as plain voyeuristic behaviour. <BR/><BR/>I don't think he helped Kenton behind the camera, but it was not unlikely that he took good note of the proceedings of picture-making (He must have got some ideas from working with Whale, too)Gloriahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00895285900033034259noreply@blogger.com